Pakistan: Assassination of Ms. Perveen Rehman

URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY

PAK 002 / 0313 / OBS 025

Extrajudicial
killing

Pakistan

March 19, 2013

The
Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of
the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation
Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following
situation in Pakistan.

Description
of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed of the assassination, in
Karachi, of Ms. Perveen Rehman, a highly respected social activist who was working
vigorously for the emancipation of the poor and marginalised people in Karachi
through the "Orangi Pilot Project".

According to the information received, on March 13, 2013,
Ms. Perveen Rehman was brutally shot dead by four armed men on two motorcycles,
while travelling in her car near the western Karachi's Orangi area. No militant
group has claimed the attack.

Ms. Perveen Rehman was reportedly shot twice on the face
and once in the neck, shortly after she left her office. Ms. Rehman was rushed
to the local Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where she subsequently died from her
wounds.

Ms. Perveen Rehman had previously reported being subjected
to death threats. On one occasion, an armed man had reportedly stormed her
offices and had ordered staff to leave.

Ms. Parveen Rehman was a very well respected teacher of
architecture and one of the most committed and courageous
defenders of the cause of the poor and the disadvantaged in Pakistan over the
last 30 years. She was the director of the internationally renowned “Orangi
Pilot Project” (Karachi), one of Pakistan's most successful non-for-profit
social programmes, which helps local communities escape from poverty. She
inherited the direction of the “Orangi Pilot Project” in 1999 from Dr. Akhtar
Hamed Khan (who founded the project in the 1980s) and maintained the project as
a pioneering institution in the areas of urban development, rural planning,
water and sewerage management, poor children’s education and a genuine
micro-credit service.

Ms. Perveen Rehman had recently been documenting the
situation in villages close to Karachi, which are affected by land grabs and
religious extremism.

The motive behind her murder remains unclear, but the
incident appears to be another case of ongoing targeted and violent attacks on
human rights defenders, NGOs representatives and social workers in many parts
of the country. It also demonstrates the nexus between criminal and political
elements involved in land grabbing.

On March 14, 2013, the provincial parliament of Sindh, of
which Karachi is the capital, offered a vote of condolence for her.

However, the investigation has so far remained inconclusive
although the police claimed that the Tehrik-e-Taliban was involved, and killed
one of its leaders, Mr. Qari Bilal, in an “encounter” following Ms. Rehman’s
assassination.

The Observatory firmly denounces the assassination of Ms.
Rehman, which seems to be related to her human rights activities, and to aim at
silencing her work in social and economic development of the poor and
marginalised people in the country. The
Observatory
offers sincere condolences to the bereaved family and to Ms. Rehman's friends
and colleagues.

Actions
requested:

The Observatory urges the authorities of Pakistan to:

Carry out an effective,
thorough and impartial investigation into the above-mentioned killing, in
order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil,
competent and impartial tribunal, and apply to them the penal sanctions
provided by the law;

ii.Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of all human rights
defenders in Pakistan;

Conform in any circumstances
with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted
on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular:
- its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually
or in association with others, to promote the protection and realization
of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international
levels”;

- its Article 6 (c) which states that “everyone has the right,
individually and in association with others to study, discuss, form and hold
opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights
and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to
draw public attention to those matters”;

- and its Article 12.2 which states that “the State shall take all
necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of
everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence,
threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or
any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise
of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”.

iv.Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights
standards and international instruments ratified by Pakistan.